Stanford is studying Facebook.
Why Study Facebook?
Our current focus on Facebook extends research we did in 2006 on how Web 2.0 sites motivate and persuade people. Our investigations last year showed that every successful Web 2.0 company followed the same
persuasion pattern; we outlined this pattern and called it the “Behavior Chain of Online Participation” (a journal article should be out in October). By looking at what works in the real world, we contributed new insights to captology, the study of computers as persuasive technology.
We don’t yet know what new insights we’ll gain by focusing on Facebook. But that’s what makes research fun: You don’t know for sure what you’ll discover.
Yet one thing seems clear: What we learn in this project will go beyond Facebook. To be sure, the psychology that drives Facebook relates directly to other online success stories, including those Internet blockbusters yet to be invented.
– BJ Fogg, Ph.D., & the Persuasive Technology Lab
